


Detached Blood

by AmatureWriter



Series: Mending Bonds Step By Step [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: And a heart, Angst, Because you need two when dealing with these dorks, Big Brother Elijah Kamski, But he's still smug about it, Chloe has a Thiriumpump, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Half-Siblings, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Elijah Kamski has a heart, Elijah and Gavin need to figure out how to talk about emotions, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed is a Mess, Gavin has a heart, Good Elijah Kamski, Hurt Gavin Reed, I Made Myself Cry, I just needed this interaction between them, I love them both, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jumping off a roof, Just in general, Not in the story though, Not sure where I got this idea from, Post-Canon Fix-It, Reunited and It Feels So Good, She has two hearts, Soft Elijah Kamski, Suicide Attempt, Their dad was a shithead, They both need therapy, They deserve a happy ending, Though only by a few months
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23687839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmatureWriter/pseuds/AmatureWriter
Summary: After losing contact with his brother Gavin for years they finally reunite, but this isn't how Elijah had hoped it would go.
Relationships: Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed, Original Chloe | RT600 & Elijah Kamski, Original Chloe | RT600 & Gavin Reed
Series: Mending Bonds Step By Step [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707304
Comments: 8
Kudos: 141





	Detached Blood

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry.

Elijah Kamski was the typical introvert; he hated crowds, hated talking with people and much more preferred books over parties. Especially with himself being a “child prodigy” and much more ahead than his peers and his parents not catching on until the fifth grade, he became a sort of outcast. Elijah was praised for his intelligence and understanding so many different concepts, yet the one thing he never understood was how to hold a decent conversation with someone his near age or younger. Which caused problems while he finished high school by twelve and graduated from university at fifteen, but the main problem was his half-brother Gavin. 

Gavin was inadvertently introduced into his dull life when they were both five, they naturally attended private school together and assigned the same room. While Elijah willfully chose to read rather than play and Gavin decided that his Nintendo DSXL served as worthy entertainment, an emotional bond had somehow formed. It was repressed, pushed down by emotional constipation that they had both inherited from their uncaring father. But sometimes, once in a blue moon, it decided to show. It peeked out during the violent thunderstorms that brought Elijah to near tears (for a reason unknown until they were old enough to belatedly realize that constant arguing and loud threats caused such irrational fears), and Gavin would sit by his brother while they watched some sci-fi 80’s movie that only the genius understood at the time. Their unbreakable bond would show when Gavin came upstairs from his cruel parent’s hands, his face bruised and then Elijah would finally agree to play their Xbox and let Gavin win if only to see him smile and laugh. And it showed, in their preteen years, a dreadful week before Elijah was to go off to an elite university; they’d share a bed, crying together for the very last time. 

Their bond had rapidly diminished after a year, Elijah found himself too busy or too tired (and, later, too uneasy) to return Gavin’s messages. He felt as though time had rewound, and they were back to being awkward five-year-olds, being unable to speak to each other. Complete strangers. Elijah kept an eye on him though, in the background; keenly watching Gavin’s high school grad via posts online, his acceptance into the police academy through word of mouth and then him being in the Detroit police from the news. Yet he never once sent any congratulations or praise, and neither did Gavin. Their nights traditionally spent giggling hysterically about their determined futures together and consistent praises for prestigious awards or local tournaments were now just a forgotten memory.

The inventor had also moved to Detroit; it was cheaper, and he could build from the ground up. By the time Gavin was stationed there, Detroit turned into a bustling city and androids were just popping up here and there. In addition, by the time Gavin had moved Elijah hid any relation of them far away; any record that they scarcely knew each other was buried under thousands of compact code or simply deleted off the internet and any paper copies he had of his brother were burned. Except for a picture placed on his bedside table. It was a safety measure. Elijah received thousands of hate mail per day, the amount rising steadily with newer androids being released, and without any way to know which ones would follow through it felt like a necessary evil. Gavin had never made any comment on that either, his very last text was from July 17, 2018; which simply wished him a happy birthday. 

A soft whisper woke Elijah Kamski up from the first good bit of sleep he had in a few days, and it left him feeling like a high schooler again; mind groggy and eyes wanting to shut tight. The voice was soft, obviously Chloe’s, and he wasn’t sure how it had woken him up from such a deep sleep in the first place. 

“It really is nice to hear from you, Gavin,” she whispered, voice calm and endearing, purposely saying his brother’s name so Elijah knew who it was. It was quite for a long time before Chloe shook her head. “No, no, it’s okay, I’m glad you called. It’s been a long time.”  
Elijah sat up now, the lamp turned on and he was rubbing his eyes. He gave Chloe a questioning look and in response, she only held her finger up. “No, Elijah is up, I can pass the call over to him… Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be glad to talk to you,” her face turned to worry. “No, don’t hang up. Please.” After a few seconds, her LED shown back to yellow and she gestured for Elijah to pick up his phone.

“Gavin?” his voice was still slightly thick with sleep. 

“I’m sorry.” The sentence flew sharply out of his brother’s mouth, and his voice too was thick, though it sounded as if Gavin had been crying.

“For what?” Elijah asked, his usually fast-paced mind refusing to comprehend anything.  
The line went dead, and for a few moments Elijah though his brother had hung up on him. He opened his mouth to call out but was silenced.

“I tried to kill myself.” The voice was quiet, almost impossible to hear.

Everything went blank, his mind completely shutting down. Then it all sped up and words came to his mind. Excuse me? Are you okay? Are you hurt? “Excuse you?” he winced. Not what he had wanted to say. The line stayed silent while Elijah stared off into space, slowly registering his brother’s words and trying to come up with something different to say. “But that’s… so stupid,” his words were more accusatory than he meant them to be and, again, not what he wanted to say. Gavin’s breath hitched. 

“I know,” he sputtered, it was muffled and it sounded as though Gavin was trying to muffle himself with his hand or arm. But Elijah knew Gavin all too well; his brother was crying, ugly crying. 

The inventor sat up straighter in his bed and dragged a hand down his face, and sighed softly. “Gavin…” he started. “What happened?”

“I tried to-”

“I know!” Elijah winced, coughed lightly and spoke again in a quieter tone. “How? What did you do?”

Again, the phone went silent, and Elijah began to feel fear flood his stomach as he became more aware of the situation. He no longer felt tired. Just as he was about to prompt his brother again, a mouse-voice answered. “I jumped off a building,” Now he was up, legs on the floor as he sat on the side of his bed. “I jumped off a building.” It was stronger this time as if Gavin was just realizing what he had said. “Elijah, I jumped off a building- I landed on another one lower to the ground. I woke up later.” 

“Gavin-”

“Elijah. God, look at me,” he hissed. “I can’t even kill myself properly.”

“Good,” Elijah turned to see Chloe walking in, bright blue eyes looking at her creator in worry.  
“Listen. You sit tight, I’ll come to pick you up.” Chloe shook her head quickly and sat by the bed to rub his back. It was at that moment he realized his hand was shaking violently and tears streaked down his face. “I’ll send a car to come get you.” 

“I’m sorry.” Gavin’s voice cracked in a way it shouldn’t have; it should not have sounded so weak, so small, so insignificant. And yet, it matched all that- Elijah’s stomach twisted and he squirmed.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Just sit tight and try to breathe, okay? And stay on the line.”

“I’m not going to-”

“Please.” The desperation in his tone must have struck something as Gavin responded affirmatively and they just stayed on the line together. Mostly in silence, the only noise being an occasional sob from Gavin and his own crashing heart, but it felt better than hanging up.

It was two full hours before Gavin arrived. During that time the brother’s strayed from the situation glaring at them, as they always did and focused on other topics instead. It had all been going smoothly, Gavin had just finished talking Elijah through a recently closed case like a true-crime documentary narrator, when he asked about the detective’s cat Sock’s, only to learn she had been run over not even a full week ago. The phone had gone dead for a bit before he turned to ask about the raid on a red ice warehouse he had seen Gavin participate in on the news; Elijah always kept a close eye on Gavin, even if they hadn’t been on the best of terms for twenty years and refusing to speak for eight of them. 

During their conversation, Elijah walked down to the living room and set up the couch with a blanket, filled the table with those horrid snacks Gavin liked which he kept stashed in a pantry incase his brother ever decided to visit, and stiffly sat down. Elijah hung up when he heard the door open and Chloe greeted Gavin with a smile that could be heard through her greeting.  
Elijah looked up, and he saw just how much of a wreck the detective looked: purple bruises already formed around his face and jawbone, a black eye, bloody nose, splits on his face, matted hair that definitely grew since the raid interview, dull eyes and he looked to be limping. The inventor stood up and met Gavin halfway to the couch and he enveloped Gavin in their first hug in over twenty years. 

“Jesus Christ,” Elijah breathed. “What the fuck happened to you?” 

“I jumped off a building,” Gavin mumbled, his knees buckled but Elijah held him up and brought him over to the couch. Elijah then tucked Gavin’s head underneath his chin and held his brother close, but not too tight. 

“I know that. What happened?” he turned Gavin’s head, so they looked into each other's eyes. “Talk to me.” 

Gavin gave Elijah a look, his eyes squinting together. We’re nothing more than strangers now… 

“I know…”

“What don’t you know, oh great inventor?” Gavin mocked.

Their voices stopped after that, Elijah trying to think of a different way of approaching this and Gavin trying to calm the pounding of his rib cage. At the face Gavin made Elijah wanted to hit his face against the wall. “Why didn’t you go to the hospital?” he asked, sitting up straighter so Gavin could rest his body more comfortably. “God knows you’ve probably got broken bones- probably busted a rib too!” 

Gavin shook his head. “I know what a broken rib feels like, I just bruised it. Second roof wasn’t much lower down, ‘couple stories or something.” Elijah remembered when the news had broadcasted a detective breaking his ribs and getting shot after a home raid gone wrong, remembered sitting on the edge of his seat and praying that it wasn’t Gavin. But, with how reckless his brother seemed to be on the force, it ended up being Gavin, and Elijah didn’t sleep until it was reported that Gavin had fully recovered. 

“That doesn’t mean shit,” Elijah muttered. “Let’s just get you sorted out so I don’t have to deal with you bitching in the morning about how much it hurts.” We still need to talk.  
Gavin barked out a laugh. “I don’t bitch- that’s your job.” 

Half an hour later Gavin's head was wrapped in a cooling towel, his ribs supported with a flexible brace and his ankle also in a brace. Blood washed from his body and a new clean pair of clothes (Elijah’s most snuggly and expensive, though Gavin didn’t need to know that.), and was sat in front of the television and fire where strong flames gently licked the fibreglass. 

Gavin played with a loose string on the hem of the sweater, twisting it and pulling it until it was an inch long. Elijah almost sighed, it was one of Gavin’s anxious fidgets that greatly annoyed him. Other than cracking his joints or scratching his skin. Elijah coughed lightly and turned to face his brother, though he barely managed to get a word out before Gavin interrupted with a sharp exhale.

“We need to talk. I know that. I just-” he tied the grey string around his index finger absentmindedly. “I’m just… Not good at that.”

“Neither of us are. It’s our greatest vice.” With Gavin preferring to fight his emotions away and Elijah working nonstop for days at a time being their ways of coping, there was no easy way for them to ever talk about their feelings. It was like trying to get a chain-smoker to stop smoking; they knew what they did wasn’t even remotely healthy, but they couldn’t see themselves acting any differently. 

“I blame dad for that,” Gavin huffed. “The asshole couldn’t even tell us when he was proud.” 

Elijah agreed. “At least I had you,” he said after a minute of silence, looking directly at Gavin. Who broke eye contact and jerked his head. “Gavin, who was the one to tell me that I shouldn’t listen to those only jealous butthead teachers that I’m smarter than them?” he paraphrased from their childhood, when Elijah had cried after his teacher had forewarned him to stop getting ahead, mockingly asking him if he would like to teach the class instead. 

Gavin said nothing, so Elijah continued. “Who told me he was proud when I finished school in five years and got accepted into college when dad only moaned about his shitty job? Who told me that I’d do great things after graduating when dad never bothered to even say congratulations? And who made sure I was okay during thunderstorms? Who worked an entire summer and winter job at fourteen, so he could visit me during spring break to watch and eat trash? Who convinced me that our dad was a mother fucker that abused us?

“You did. You did all that, and more. So much more.” Gavin barely looked at him. Elijah grabbed his brother and held him, trying to convey what his mouth was too slow to say, yet everything was still trying to push its way out. “Where would I be if you died? And don’t say I wouldn’t have known because I watch every interview you’ve had and read about every raid or arrest you’ve done. I would have known, Gavin. And then who would I say all of this to?” Elijah stared at Gavin as he continued to look down, his shoulders shaking slightly.

But that was all the reaction Elijah needed. He seized Gavin and clutched him as tight as he dared as his younger brother all but sobbed against his chest. “It’s okay, you can cry… I’m here for you. I’m here for you now.”

It had been a mistake, losing contact. He should have said ‘hi’, even if it was just once a week. Should have made Gavin feel like Elijah needed him, then he never would have had to affirm it when his brother was at his breaking point because he’d have already known. Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. However, the damage has been done- to the both of them-, and now they needed to pick up a thousand shards that lay strewn around their minds.

Elijah didn’t even realize he was crying until it became hard to breathe and he sucked in a stuttered breath before planting a tender kiss on Gavin’s forehead. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” came the weak and exhausted reply. 

He shifted as his brother slumped down and loosened whatever grip he had on Elijah and went drifted into some sort of sleep. Elijah looked down at the snacks that littered the table, surely they could wait a little longer. Looking to the left of him, the large opened window greeted him with a strong snow flurry, unusual for it being mid-November. But, then again, unusual seemed to describe today perfectly. 

Catching sight of his brother’s wrist had him gasping for air. God, it was too surreal. What exactly tormented his brother’s thoughts, he didn’t exactly know, but he could make an educated guess. That was a talk for later, though. Gavin needed rest, it was four in the morning and even Elijah felt his eyes dropping by the second. For a little while, they merely needed each other; that was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Please let me know what you think and if you'd like a sequel of sorts! 
> 
> I'm planning on making a series about Gavin and Elijah repairing their relationship.


End file.
